TV Wonder VE - If you've used it, tell me what you think

[NightOwll]

I bought this card cuz it was on sale at Best Buy (and the sale was ending; and they didn't heve the TV Wonder [no VE]).
Before I open it I would like to hear from people who have used this card to copy home videos to their PCs.
[My OS: Win98SE]
Did you have trouble with the syncing the sound and video?
What drivers did you use?
What software?
Have you had it long?

Would you recommend this product?
Thanks for all input!

[easydvd]

I bought the TV Wonder VE a couple of months ago. Although it was my first ( and only ) capture card........I'm pretty impressed with it. For the $40 bucks I spent I think it's a good deal.

I'm running XP so I can't tell you about any potential problems with 9x

FIRST THING TO DO..........ATI MMC that comes with it is junk!! Tried it, hated it now I use the CD for a coaster under my coffee cup.

A much better, and free, choice is VirtualDub. I capture @352x480 with no dropped frames and my rig is fairly modest, no 2gHzP4 for me!!
If you are just watching TV and not doing a capture, try dScaler. I like that one too and it's free as well.

On to drivers. Still, the ATI stuff is junk. I'm using the ones from www.btwincap.sourceforge.net Just make sure you pick the right card and tuner in the dropdowns. If you are in the U.S. it's probably Phillips NTSC for the tuner.

A/V synch is easy with v-dub, just set it to capture at 29.97 and you shouldn't have any problems, or at least I don't doing it like that.

Recommendation? If you don't have big bucks to spend it is a hell of a good deal for $40. I'm happy with the TV and VHS caps I do.

One last thing.......
You will get 100% better captures by using the composite video rather than coax on the tuner itself.

[monoxide77]

that was good advice by easydvd. the main reason you don't want to capture straight from the coax is that the built-in tuner doesn't tune in stereo sound. i paid $50 for mine close to a year ago, and my friend got one at Walmart for $19 a month or so ago. for the money, it's not a bad cap card. like stated above, DO NOT install the bundled drivers OR software. tune your system for this card and have fun.

[easydvd]

thanks monoxide......I try. :P

Also NightOwll, If these are home movies they are probably progressive but if it's a movie you are making a backup of it's more than likely interlaced or at least telicined. Apply the appropriate filters. In AVISynth I would recommend you take a look at TomsMoComp for de-interlacing. Easy, fast and not bad results!!

[vhelp]

ATWVE . . .
.
.
just to add. . . also, don't forget, it's not equipted w/ any S-Video connection.
I didn't know this at the time of purchase, believe it or not, as I must have
looked at the box, top ta bottom 3 or 4 times, and STILL didn't notice the
specs saving on Composite connection.
This also happend to me w/ the WTVGO card as well. Same exact
experience, LOL

However, the card is a good card. I've used it, and still mess around w/
it for testing purposes mostly. But, I did find the WVTGO card to be a
better card in reference to Sharpeness. As you know, both cards, the
ATWVE and the WTVGO are Composite (RCA) only. No S-Video.
Now, the ATW is the one w/ the break-out box (purpose front-side video
connecters) and does have the RCA and S-Video for capture inputs.
Both ATW and ATWVE are aprox $49 each. WTVGO is $49 mono.

So, which card would I go with. . . depends on your:
* system
* source materials
* quality of the above
* your level of experience ie: capturing, encoding and authoring, etc.
* and then some

When I do use it, it's used in my windows 98 (not se)
But, the ATWVE is a good card, none-the-less.

-vhelp

[rsuave5]

i also have tv wonder ve and i like it. the included software makes a great toy for my little girl(10 mos) smart of them to include that for her to keep her busy. i do mostly vhs captures with avi_io and they r as good as the originals. i didnt have much luck with tv captures but i didnt try hard as i just wanted the vhs transfer and it does well.
i recommend it for the price but if i was more into tv capture and wanted to capture at a higher res id find another, for the price its great!

[kakkerlakk]

The link at http://www.btwincap.sourceforge.net is dead. Any other place I can find these drivers?

[kakkerlakk]

Nevermind, just realized there is no www in teh address.

[Tiger39]

I've had it for several months now, and was very satisfied with it until recently. The last two months I've had a problem gettting the picture to come up. The audio will play fine, but for some reason, I have a black screen. I'm running WINDOWS 98SE on a P4 system. Maybe somebody here has experienced the same problem and can tell me how to solve it. ATI has been no help at all. In fact, they haven't even answered my email. and I'm not about to spend money to call their tech support. They should have an 800 number for that.

[easydvd]

maybe un-install and then re-install the drivers? It would be quick and easy if it works.

[Tiger39]

tried that already...didn't work. Now I've installed the DSCALER software and the picture is fine. Only problem i have now, is when i shut it down, the audio tuner doesn't turn off... I can still hear the tv even without the software running. Cansomebody tell me how to correct this?

[vhelp]

tiger39,

I have this issue too. But it doesn't really bother me none. I just turn off
my Satalite (thats my audio issue) If I leave Satalite on, I can hear the
audio still playing. Soon as I turn it off, I don't hear it. But, yours may
be the Tuner part. And that I don't understand why it's still keeping the
audio on.

Are you using the (o) Aux line in in the ATWVE card?? or,
Are you feeding the audio from another source ie VCR/Satalite into your
soundcard??

I don't use the TV Tuner part of ANY of my capture cards. What I use are:
* Video In (feed my Satalite signal here)
* and from my Satalite, I feed the Audio into my sound card.
I just turn off my Stalite, when I'm not capturing, or turn off my speaker
system if I have to.

-vhelp

[Tiger39]

i have mine connected to my cable service, but have it done in such a way that i can watch LOCAL cable or satellite tv..... its the cable that is the problem. I feed the audio to the sound card from the LINE OUT connection...guess i could turn off the speakers, but then i couldn't play MP3's.... so I've got to figure out how to fix this..

[vhelp]

tiger,

to be honest with ya, i think it's normal to hear audio, when it's comming
from your Line In. That is, if it's:
Audio Source output --> SoundCard's LineIn input

You'll hear sound, even if you PC was off, and you just turned it on, as soon
as windows booted up, you'd begin to hear sound. But, this IS normal.
If you had the SBlive family of cards, if memory serves me correctly, it
always muted or [x] out the LineIn box untill you either turned it on manually
or ran an applicatoin that required LineIn, and the SBlive card sensed this
and allow the LineIn to let you hear audio.

I remember this happening to me, and I remember when I actually wanted
the LineIn to always be ON when I needed it, but couldn'd get the SBL card
to keep the LineIN, in an always ON state.

In the end, I yanked out the SBL card cause it was the cause of most of
my Capture issues I used to have back then, and switched to the Turtle
Beach (santa cruz) 4 speaker card. This one uses very little CPU resource
and doesn't cause me as many framedrops on my pc (1st pc)

My 2nd pc has a Vortex SQ1500 in it. For my needs, that's all I need, he he...

You final outcome??
I think you needn't worry about it, get over it and just do what I do, that is,
turn it off, when you don't need it. ie, my Satalite. I turn it off.
Or, you can always pop open the Speaker button, and mute it, but that
would be a pain in the butt, but at least, it's an alternative if you LOVE ta
play your MP3's.

-vhelp

[Tiger39]

yeah, maybe so. I could be blowing this out of proportion. Turning off the satellite won't do me any good, though. I have it connected so that i can watch regular cable tv as well, so that means when the satellite is OFF the tv still on....channel 4..lol. Oh well, maybe i can continue to work with the ATI software and solve the issue by not using this DSCaler program....

[Cyberiac]

The reason you can still hear audio is because your line-in is not muted. Genereally your line-in volume (found when double clicking the speaker icon on your desktop, sometimes not shown) is muted and the TV program will take it off mute. However some programs forget to put it back on mute and you have to do it yourself.

You can still play MP3s and stufff, just mute the line-in and you will have no problems. Plus, you can still watch your satellite.

[easydvd]

BTW too, this is a known bug with Dscaler. Everyone has the same problem. Mine is set with the cable-->>VCR composite out-->>TV Wonder video in and using the adapter that came with the card to my audio line in. I just turn off the VCR when I'm done with the cap or watching TV....whatever.

[SonKun]

I have this card to but im having a problem. Im using the generic (soundfourge or watever) drivers and v-dub (I like calling it that) and I cant capture at anything other than 320x240 but with the ati drivers I can. but I dont want to use the ati drivers because I get nothing but droped frames. Does anybodey know how to fix this?

[dcapp1]

VirtualDub does not work with WDM drivers so the card will not work in Vdub, and the generic drivers lock up my system about halfway through the install. Maybe its Win ME, but I don't think so. The updated ATI drivers that are on their website seem to work well. Actually I would love to use Vdub so if anybody could tell me how it would be greatly appreciated.

[easydvd]

v-dub does too work with wdm drivers. I have the sourceforge drivers on my machine and v-dub is just about the only thing I use to capture with.

[dcapp1]

easydvd, could the reason wdm drivers dont work on my machine be that I am using Win ME

[dcapp1]

To be more precise when I install the btwin drivers about halfway through the install I get a config error "Data is Invalid". Has anybody else had this problem, and if so how can I correct it.

[andryn442]

I just installed it today, but I couldn't get everything going right. Maybe somebody can help me:

1. In the Installation Wizard for the TV Tuner, it doesn't give the USA as a choice for region. How do I get past this?

I connected my DirecTV right into the card, and the only thing I got was a b/w picture of the station that the receiver was set at (Boomerang). Was this a result of Macrovision?

2. I kept trying to set it at CABLE, instead of COMPOSITE. Was this correct?

The sound worked PERFECT!!

3. I've heard that the included software is really crappy. Is there any other TV tuner and Digital VCR freeware that I can get to make it better?

I already downloaded the btwin drivers, and they are installed.

4. When recording from VCR, can I just connect the VCR out to the card? What about Audio...is there something that I have to do?

The included manual really sucks, and I was on hold at Customer Service for over 38 minutes before my calling card ran out?!?!

I am trying to begin recording VCD's of my tapes. Hopefully you guys can help.

[easydvd]

ok....here we go. First this is for you, andryn442

1) if you installed the drivers from www.btwincap.sourceforge.net there are two dropdowns during the install. One for card and one for tuner. If you live in the US you need to choose "Phillips NTSC" as the tuner. I'm not sure about PAL countries but I would think you need to specify for that also. That should correct the United States not being on your tuner list. If it doesn't then open your box and look on the card for a sticker with the info. That's where I found the Phillips stuff.

2) You will ALWAYS get a better capture using the composite video/audio in rather than the coaxial cable. Try also to set your capture resolution high enough to get both fields, i.e- higher than 240. The minimum I use is 352x288 and only when I'm short of HDD space. The higher you can go without dropping frames the better. 352x480 will give a good cap and 480x480 or 640x480 even better.

3) The ATI MultiMedia Center is JUNK!! I could never get any of it to work right with or without ATI drivers. A much better choice to capture with is v-dub or iuVCR. If you just want to watch TV then use DScaler, it has the BEST de-interlace algorithoms I've seen so far.(you can use them in AVISynth too....GreedyHMA.dll) v-dub is probably more versatile but iuVCR is pretty easy to set up and use.


4) Yes, you can connect the composite outputs directly from your VCR to the card. They also give you a RCA to mini-jack adapter for the audio to go into your line in. This is what I would recommend for your satellite receiver too.

5) The quality of the capture will determine your end product. If you have the space capture with HuffYUV or if not the picvideo mjpeg is pretty good as well as morgan multimedia mjpeg. After a lot of testing I think that picvideo wins out unless morgan is set at 99 or 100 and you might as well use huffy then. If you use one of the mjpegs you may have to up your brightness and contrast in the cap. I've found them to be somewhat dark.


dcapp1..........

I also got some kind of error message like that but chose to ignore it and continue with the install. Everything went in without a hitch. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that M$ charges BIG BUCKS to certify that stuff for their OS. I don't know about ME specifically but since it's just 9x with a skin I would think you are good to go....others have them on 9x.
Also on 9x you should be able to use VFW drivers to cap with v-dub. In iuVCR it says I'm using VFW drivers depending on the codec I use.

Check in the guides in the next day or two. I'm going to write one up for this card specifically since I have it and like it as well as the fact that it's fairly popular because of the price
I hope this has been of some help so far. You can always e-mail me with a question for a quicker response.

[andryn442]

Thank you for the advice. I'll try it tomorrow and let you know what's up. Gotta head off to bed now!

Thanks again.

[dcapp1]

Thanks easydvd, I got everything installed now. Only one problem, when I look in the system tab their are two devices with a yellow exlamation mark.

ATI Phillips TV Tuner
ATI Auidio Crossbar


Not sure of the actual names, but these are close enough. Vdub still does not work. It tells me capture card not detected, trying to find capture driver, none detected.

Thanks

[easydvd]

sounds like universal plug 'n pray didn't install the card. You should see one in your system for conextant something something. I can't remember what all of it was but definetly started "conextant" Try using the add hardware wizard and re-installing your card. Have faith.......you're almost there :P

[easydvd]

take a look here and tell me if this helps any :P :P

http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=122161

[andryn442]

easydvd...thanks for your assistance.

So far I've got AMCAP working as a good TV Viewer, and it works very well. THe problem I am having is with sound.

I have been able to capture video with no real problems. I can hear audio when I watch it, and even during the capture. I have my DirecTV receiver hooked up directly to the card.

Now, I can actually detect SOME audio when I check it in Media Player, but it is very low for the most part. Any suggestions?

[easydvd]

what are you using to do the capture with? If you can hear some sound then it's capping something at least I just went through this earlier today myself. Crash and re-install then lost my sound.....upsidedown captures. AAAARRRGGHH.....Got it fixed though with a little help(thanks vhelp ) see this for more there it might help you some:

http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=123060

I also rolled back the driver from the one dated 11/9 to the last version from oct. That helped A LOT.

If you're using v-dub to cap with look in the audio\volume meter settins after you open capture mode. Turn the volume up there. If that works .....easy fix. If not get back to me and I have another but more complicated suggestion. Hope that helps you out some!!